On draft night in June while Stephen Curry beamed from ear to ear, Ty Lawson was making his list and checking it twice. The 17 teams that passed on him were going to pay when he faced them. He’d punish them with points, assists, steals and spectacular plays. All designed to make them wonder what on earth they could have been thinking by going in a direction other than with him.

But between then and now an interesting thing happened – Lawson stopped caring.

While being picked in the high teens and immediately traded didn’t do wonders for his ego five months ago, it turns out the Denver Nuggets rookie point guard has found something better: Success and happiness.

And that’s priceless.

Just ask Curry.

His bank account is a bit bigger, but so are his stress levels. Golden State is as far away from the Nuggets in the standings as Curry was drafted (7th) ahead of Lawson (18th). On top of that, Curry, expected to do big things quickly (how ever fairly or unfairly) hasn’t delivered just yet.

He’s struggled with defense. His consistency ebbs and flows on offense. Golden State has had a dysfunctional start with finger-pointing between players, feuding between ex-forward Stephen Jackson and coach Don Nelson before the player was traded; and a budding star in guard Monta Ellis who before the season even began said he could not co-exist with Curry in the same backcourt.

And through all of that, the baby-faced kid from Davidson is supposed to learn and grow and become a true professional.

“I’m not happy with how things are going so far, right now anyway, the consistency of my game,” Curry said. “So, I’m just going to continue to work hard, work on that, and see what happens. My confidence is high. I just gotta try to keep my happiness level up with how we’re playing. It’s not there. We’re going to fight back. We’re not going to quit on the season or anything like that. But we have a long way to go.”

Meanwhile, Lawson has found that going later can have its privileges.

Outside of Carmelo Anthony’s MVP start to the season, Lawson has been the next-best story on the team. He has come from a rookie that wasn’t pegged for much playing time to a player that in the preseason veterans whispered to coach George Karl had to get on the court, to a player that has moved into the reserve point guard role previously occupied by an 11-year veteran.

Everywhere the Nuggets go, every new team the Nuggets face, Karl fields a bevy of the same questions all in effort to write the latest round of glowing stories about the impact Lawson has had on the team. It’s been so much that Karl joked he’d been told to stop gushing so much about him. And it’s just December.

Which brings us back to draft position and what it really means. In Lawson’s and Curry’s cases, it’s meant an early reversal of fortune.

“If you go to a team that’s not really winning, like the New Jersey Nets, they haven’t won a game yet. I might go crazy if I haven’t won a game. I’m a competitive person,” Lawson said. “I’m glad I’m on a team that’s winning like we are right now.”

Lawson’s words come with smiles.

Many of Curry’s come with sighs.

“We have some ups and downs as a team right now,” Curry said. “We come out some games really competitive, getting where we want to be on the court, making you feel real comfortable. And some nights we really don’t have it and get blown out like (Tuesday against the Nuggets). So, we just got to stay focused on getting better every day.”

Working in Curry’s favor is an energetic interim coach, Keith Smart, who keeps sunshine and rainbows present in a season full of storm clouds.

“This is not an easy league for a rookie to come in,” Smart said. “Even LeBron (James) struggled when he came in, but of course he’s a super talent. But young players are going to struggle because they have to go through all of the ins and outs of the NBA – how they prepare, how they deal with a back-to-backs. So he’s on track. It’s going to be tough on him for a moment, but he’s still going to be a good player in our league.”

Let's just wait until Lawson plays on a bad Nuggets team. That time is coming soon enough. The Nuggets have been highly fortunate the last few years. They have barely had any players miss significant time with injures, which can cripple a team. Just ask teams like the Wizards, or Portland, or well…you get the drift.Lawson doesn't have to do much. There's zero pressure on him to replace someone. If Billups went down for the season, then let's see how he handles replacing that kind of production and leadership. No way Lawson could.This is a pretty homeristic article.

avarra

This is a bit of a pessimistic comment. Your statement could apply to any team in any sport. Injuries can and have decimated many teams and backup players have had to come in and try their best to help the team win anyway. The teams generally don't do as well for obvious reasons – so what, exactly, is the point of your post? That Lawson isn't Chauncy Billups? Well… obviously.

This comment makes no sense. And what does “homeristic” mean? The point you should have tried to make is in regards to the fact that Curry played for a weaker team which boosted his overall NBA stock value, being the highlight player on the team. Lawson's stock was underated because of the immense talent overshadowing him. Shame on the respective NBA team's recruiting staff for NEVER recognizing these values. How many top draft picks have been a total bust over the past ten years?

klutch3

This comment makes no sense. And what does “homeristic” mean? The point you should have tried to make is in regards to the fact that Curry played for a weaker team which boosted his overall NBA stock value, being the highlight player on the team. Lawson's stock was underated because of the immense talent overshadowing him. Shame on the respective NBA team's recruiting staff for NEVER recognizing these values. How many top draft picks have been a total bust over the past ten years?

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.

Nicki Jhabvala is the Sports Digital News Editor for The Denver Post. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor, and she was most recently the overnight home page editor at the New York Times.